The present invention relates to a beverage machine using capsules for preparing and delivering a beverage in a brewing device. The present invention, for example, provides a beverage machine using a capsule adapted to deliver brewed tea although other beverages can be brewed in the capsule.
Quality of a tea beverage is highly dependent on the quality of the leaf tea ingredients, i.e., the tea origin used (soil, drying, blending, etc.) and their storage conditions. For instance, tea ingredients are usually sensitive to oxygen and light. Preferred tea ingredients are taken from loose leaves, chiselled or broken into small fragments. However, brewing conditions are also important to take full advantage of the quality of the ingredients used.
Different beverage machines using capsules for brewing beverages are already known. However, according to the prior art, a piercing needle which is used to inject hot water into the capsule is provided with an axial channel which opens at the tip end of the piercing needle so that the hot water is injected into the capsule in the piercing direction.
EP 242 556 has already described such a machine for extracting coffee where the piercing needle presents preferably two holes at its tip end diametrically opposite one another. The axis of these holes forms an angle of from 70° to 80° with the axial channel of the needle for allowing effective diffusion of the water throughout the mass of coffee in the cartridge so as to obtain complete extraction and to avoid the formation of channels in the ground coffee.
EP 469 162 and EP 468 080 describe the same type of machine but the axis of the holes at the tip of the piercing needle forms an angle of 0 to 25° with the horizontal, where horizontal means the plane formed by the flat circular surface and angle means the angle formed above the plane of the horizontal. By virtue of this geometry of the holes of the needle, the water is thus directed towards the top of the capsule so that it is uniformly distributed over the entire surface of the capsule after deflection at the top of the capsule.
EP 1 510 158 describes the same type of machine but the piercing needle is arranged so as to inject the liquid into the capsule in the form of at least one thin layer extending in a continuous, divergent and multidirectional manner, covering a spray surface in an arc of a circle inside the capsule. Such a spray configuration aims at dispersing the liquid over a large surface while retaining the advantages of power and speed of a jet but avoiding discrete directed jets that create holes or preferential paths through the substance. The thin layer of hot water is obtained by means of slots in the piercing or injection element creating at least two spray layers, each spraying in an arc of 45 to 180°, preferably 120 to 180°. The spray layer is preferably directed transversely to the direction in which the beverage emerges from the capsule, so as to spray the widest surface possible and thus allow the injected liquid to then flow through the mass of coffee.
WO 01/72187 describes a hot water dispensing apparatus where a piercing needle injects hot water in a mug comprising soluble ingredients. The mug is horizontally perforated by the needle creating a horizontal jet of hot water in the mug in order to break said jet against the mug upwards wall facing the tip of the needle.
The teachings of the prior art are especially adapted for roasted coffee extraction. But in the case where tea is to be brewed with known beverage machines like those described in EP 1774 878, EP 1 775 234 or EP 1 859 712, the leaf tea ingredients are not optimally eluted.